The invention relates to a system reproduction machine diagnostics, and more particularly, to a job scheduling and recovery information memory dump for diagnosing such reproduction machines.
As reproduction machines such as copiers and printers become more complex and versatile in the jobs they can do, the interface between the machine and the machine control must necessarily be expanded if full and efficient utilization of the machine is to be realized. A suitable interface must not only provide the controls, displays, and messages necessary to activate, program, monitor, and maintain the machine, but must allow for expanded diagnostics and the means to provide the necessary data to correct control malfunctions or potential malfunctions. The job scheduling and recovery control for modern machines are considerably more complex than in any other previous copier/duplicator products, and must facilitate as many as four copy modes, four input modes, three basic output options, and an inventory of job programming and interactive features such as exception programming, covers, job interrupt, end job, proof set, sample copy and on-the-fly copy quality changes.
The prior art is replete with user interface systems. For example, the Xerox 5700 Electronic Printing System incorporates a touch control CRT screen providing button, key, and window images on the screen combined with text to give concise instructions to the operator. This system accepts magnetic cards, cassettes, and disks that store the documents to be printed and also the magnetic media can store control information to specify the output format for printing or to invoke special features such as merging or interleaving. The system software translates the coded data, formats the page, and generates the hard copy locally, or the system can transmit the data via a communication link to remote 5700 printing sites.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,560 discloses a copier which functions according to a sequence control program stored on floppy disk and loaded by a user. The floppy disk can also contain a diagnostic program to facilitate maintenance, and further act as a key to prevent unauthorized use of the copier.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,483 discloses a laser printer including a microprocessor to read data or program information from a cartridge loaded by a user. A special maintenance operating system on the cartridge runs the printer through automatic routines to be checked by a technician.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,366 to Braswell et al. discloses a diagnostic system for generating information on transport devices. Upon indication of a fault, the data stored in addressable memory is moved to a non-volatile memory. A data display means is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,846 to Federico et al. discloses a control system that monitors software crashes to prevent machine malfunctions. A diagnostic path isolates the element containing a fault, records fault histories of each element, and displays such conditions on the control display. Also disclosed is a method for recovering after a software crash.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,147 to Tadokoro discloses a history information providing device that uses non-volatile memory for storing failure and usage information, such as total number of pages printed, operating time of motors, number of paper jams, etc. A method of printing out of the history information is also disclosed.
A difficulty with the prior art reproduction machine systems is the inability to provide an on-line diagnostic tool for automatic acquisition of current and past information corresponding to job scheduling and recovery anomalies. This acquired information can be used to debug anomalies at any period of time after they occur. It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a diagnostic procedure which is capable of either automatically or manually transferring vital job scheduler and recovery information to a reserved block of memory on the machine's hard disk in the case of anomaly. The hard disk file can subsequently be transferred to a floppy disk by entering a set of keystrokes on the User Interface Panel while in diagnostics mode and the data on the floppy disk is then available for in depth analysis on a personal computer. Further advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.